Page 10 of Eight Embers

Delaney sighs in exasperation, counts backward from 10, and then raids the fridge and comes out with a bag of carrots. “I suppose it would be too much to ask to get a mate that actually likes me from the start? One that isn’t stuck on the side of a building?” she says as she throws a kiss over her shoulder to Leo.

“If you're going to confront him, know that we're all coming with you.” I stay close to her just in case she tries to fight me on that.

Jackson puts an arm around my shoulders, patting me. “That's the spirit. It's mate bonding weekend anyway. We'll get this guy under control Delaney, don't you worry.”

“Honestly, that's what I'm afraid of.”

And with that cryptic comment, we're marching down the endless stairs to get outside, making me wonder why we've never upgraded this dorm. My joints hate the fact I'm going to be usingthese stairs so much from here on out. Could I convince her to move into the headmaster's house with me?

Maybe it's best that I wait longer and get in her good graces first.

The troop of women all surrounding this unicorn is almost deafening when we walk out of the front doors of the dorm hall; squealing, taking selfies, some even attempting to climb on his back for a ride.

Delaney nips that in the bud, though. “Thanks ladies, you can go now. That's very kind of you to keep my mate occupied while I got him a snack.”

“Gross, we're mating animals now?”

I bite my tongue; it wouldn't be good to go around insulting my students. Probably.

Thankfully, Adam has no issue doing that. “It's a shifter, you dumbass. You guys are sitting here rubbing your bodies all over him, and you attend a magical university. Not one of you thought for a second ‘hmm, we have other shifters, and a magical unicorn that just came out of nowhere. Maybe they have the ability to turn into a human, too?’”

Delaney backhands Adam on the chest lightly. “Be nice,” she tells him while definitelynotlaughing at the abundant lack of common sense around us.

“Where did he come from, though?” one of the girls asks, still riveted by the light blue beast in front of her.

In their defense, I didn't know unicorn shifters were real. I'm half tempted myself to run my chest all over him and inhale to see if he smells like swirly lollipops.

That’s likely another thing that would be frowned upon to do in front of my students.

I get closer to Delaney, resting a hand on her hip. I'm trying not to feel the heat of the students’ eyes around me at the gesture. “Did you say his name wasSalad?”

The pony snorts, making blue glitter fall out of his nostrils, but I'm thinking it's a display of anger. Still beautiful. Then he transforms back into a human, hands on his hips and wearing something that looks very toga-like. “It’sSaladriel. Not Salad. Why would I be named after a leafy vegetable? That’s just offensive. Even more offensive than being sent here, to your stupid, non-cloud world where I have to play nice withher. Figures. Just when I was about to get called up for my spot in line to sort out the recycling we import for fun. You ruined everything!”

Saladriel tries to stomp off, but quickly realizes he doesn't know where anything is, has no belongings, no money, no shelter, no nothing. So, he ends up just sitting on the grass and then plopping backwards to tantrum some more. He even kicks his legs for a bit of dramatic flair. “This issothe opposite of fun!”

“I should probably mention,” Delaney says as we sit there and watch him act like a defiant toddler, “that apparently where he's from, this cloud city—”

“It'scalledGlittertopia!”

Delaney points at him and laughs, accepting the interjection and yelling a thank you to the manchild. “The goddess said they are all very... unhappy there. The race is failing because unicorns need to be happy to thrive. I'm supposed to... make him happy? I don't really know, she didn't give me any details. She said something about games, too. But like, I have no idea what kind? Also, I think there're more unicorns there she's going to mate to me, so we should be prepared for that. Really, let's just be prepared for anything and everything, and we won't get thrownoff. Okay? Okay. Who has questions? Put your hands down, I can't answer them.”

A lot of people are still staring, but the crowd is dispersing now that they realize that their magnificently magical unicorn is actually just a man who can't handle the situation he's been thrust into. Which, fair. I'm sure it's very confusing to go from the great time he was apparently having where he came from, to sitting on our lawn.

I walk towards him and sit down cautiously, trying not to spook him. “Hello, I'm Zac Aspis. I’m the headmaster here. Can't say I know anything about your species, but I'm sure we can get things sorted out for you. I imagine you're feeling very... disoriented. I want to make sure you get taken care of, alright Saladriel?”

He grunts, but his posture softens a bit. “You can call me Salad. What's the deal with the woman?” I can feel the glare and the suppressed laughter from everyone behind me, because after the big fuss he actually does go by Salad, but whatever. I digress.

“Delaney? She's a student here. Also, my mate. All of us are mated to her, actually.”

“Awesome possum, so we can all be confused together,” he says grumpily. He leans close, like he's going to whisper a secret to me. “I have no idea what to do with a woman. Dating isn't fun, so we don't really do it.”

“What do you like to do for fun, then?”

Delaney and everybody else continue to give us some room, which seems to be helping Salad— nope can't call him that. How about Drew? Yes, I will call him Drew. At least in my head. Drew seems to relax so I give him a little bit of space.

“My favorite activity lately has been painting my wall two square feet at a time and watching it dry. It's fascinating the way that the color shifts as it goes through its various stages of curing. Sometimes we'll get really wild and do it at sunset, so that the colors change even more as the light glows a whole rainbow of colors outside my window.”

I look to my new group of found family for help. But what do I do with that? If this is what the unicorns are doing for fun, it's no wonder they need some outside help. The problem is, I fear that their goddess may have gone too far in recruiting Delaney, because she's so wild that they’re going to be terrified every time she so much as speaks. It's pure system overwhelm.

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